Coupon Craze: Get money back with coupon overage

7:53 PM,
Jun. 10, 2013

Written by

Jill Cataldo

Coupon shoppers love overage. Overage is when the dollar value printed on a coupon exceeds the selling price. If I buy a box of pasta on sale for 79 cents with a $1 coupon, I've got 21 cents in overage. What happens to that 21 cents?

Depending on how your store handles overage, one of three things may happen. You may get that 21 cents back as cash, the 21 cents may be applied to your end balance at the register or the store may keep the overage, adjusting the coupon's value down to match the sale price of the item.

Now, you may be thinking that 21 cents isn't a big deal. But overage can equal big business and big ...